TheaterReview
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The Godfadda
Workout, “a parody in 12 rounds”. Photo by Joan Marcus.
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Three on a Match?
The Godfadda Workout
The Syringa Tree
By John Strasberg
MetamorphosesStrangely, these three plays have
something in common. They are all recounted in the oldest form of
theater, storytelling. The actors represent the character. There is
an obvious distance between actor and character, so that you always
know the actor is acting; rather than the actors submerging
themselves in the character. There seems to be a lot of that theater
around now.
The first two plays are fundamentally one person
plays. Developed primarily by the actors themselves, who have also
written them. It is their work as an actor that is at the heart of
the evening.
The Godfadda Workout is titled as “a parody in
12 rounds². It is born out of the star and writer Seth Isler’s
obsession with the film. Certainly, his energy attests to the fact
that he can be obsessed. We see him act out almost all the parts we
remember. He is constantly, and pleasantly, surprising us, with his
physicality, and his inventiveness; which is helped by the
director/producer, Susan Jane Sullivan. The setting is low budget,
but inventive. In fact, this one-man show really has six actors. The
other five move furniture, make mimed comments about what is going
on, and participate in making some of the tricks that pop up during
the evening, work. The evening is an hour and a half of nonstop
imagination and theater games. It is short, light, and entertaining.
Watching The Goddfadda Workout reminded me of The
Syringa Tree, which was a wonderful, poignant, funny evening I saw
last summer, with the actress who wrote and acted it, Pamela Gien.
Ms Gien, like Mr. Isler, played many characters. However, her
characters come from her memories of growing up in South Africa.
What she recounts in a wonderful, funny and poignant way, is often
very moving; not only because of how she recounts it, moving back
and forth between characters conversing with one another, but
because of how simply moving and real she is. She reveals a world
that most of us know little about, through the eyes of herself as a
child. As she grows up, comes to the United States, and becomes the
actress who becomes aware of her life, the story creates the play.
It is enjoyable theater; real, funny, poignant, and it has something
to say about life. Larry Moss directs it, and magically evolves the
form and structure of the evening. I’m glad that the producers
found a way to get this on, and keep it running. Kate Blumberg now
in the role at Playhouse 91, is not Ms Gien, as you might expect as
the life experiences are not hers, but she handles the story with
equal ease.
Both Seth Isler and Pamela Gien developed their evenings in the
classes and theater companies that abound in Los Angeles. Serious
actors, rich and poor, are starving from a lack of self-expression
in the City of Angels, and flock to these places, because they need
to nourish that part of themselves. This is the foundation of any
real actor’s life and work: part of them starves in the type of
one-dimensional work they are hopefully, sometimes, very well paid
for. Even if they are working, the work is often boring. It’s
pleasurable to see these two doing what they always wanted to do,
act in unique roles.
Metamorphoses is written and developed by Mary
Zimmerman, the director. As with the above plays, it is her work
that dominates the evening. Metamorphoses is a more ambitious
evening, largely because of its subject. It is based on Ovid’s
work of the same name. It recounts Greek myths in a simple way,
modern and accessible to all audiences. The text and direction by Ms
Zimmerman is clean, and well done. The actors all play a variety of
roles. Most of them are part of the Chicago company that developed
the piece with Ms Zimmerman. Like other Windy City companies; Second
City, the improvisational group, and Steppenwolf, this production
toured the country for some time before coming to New York.
The play takes place within a beautiful, modern,
slightly surrealistic set, designed by Daniel Ostling. It is
dominated by a large pool that the Gods love to splash around in.
The lighting, by T.J. Gerckens, is equally clean and modern,
complimenting the set; as do the costumes, designed by Mara
Blumenfeld. The resulting visual effect is easy and pleasing to look
at; down to the towels placed on the seats for the audience in the
first row. They, and the rest of us, enter the theater with a
warning to the first few rows that ‘Gods like to splash’. If I
went back to see it again, I might want to wear a bathing suit, and
bring a water gun. Because, our Gods are all too human.
My only criticism of the evening is that I felt
the acting, apart from the work of Doug Hara, who is very good in
all the roles he plays, and galvanizes attention on himself when he
is on stage, does not come up to the rest of the play’s production
levels. These are all professional actors, many of them coming out
of major University theater programs; and all have professional
experience. However, I didn’t like how they declaimed the text.
The stories they are telling are full of passion and life that form
a part of the basis of western civilization, yet, they speak in a
tone that is impersonal and distanced. Several seem as though they
have never had any voice training. There are people in the
profession who will argue that this is OK in storytelling; that an
actor can sound cold and uninvolved. I do not agree. Just go see the
other two evenings mentioned, and see the difference in the actor’s
skill, and their capacity to become involved with their characters,
even while storytelling. It proves that one can tell a story, and be
involved. It just requires a choice, and the skill to carry it out.
Fortunately this doesn’t take away from the pleasurable evening
that Ms. Zimmerman has created.
The Godfadda Workout, American Place CONCEIVED
& PERFORMED: Seth Isler DIRECTOR: Susan Jane Sullivan TICKETS
$50 $20 student rush Tele-charge 212-239-6200
The Syringa Tree, Playhouse 91 CAST: Kate Blumberg AUTHOR: Pamela
Gien DIRECTOR: Larry Moss SETS: Kenneth Foy LIGHTING: Jason
Kantrowitz COSTUMES: Bobby Pearce SOUND: Tony Suraci TICKETS $49.50
TicketMaster 212-307-4100
Metamorphoses, Circle in the Square CAST: Anjali
Bhimani, Raymond Fox, Kyle Hall, Doug Hara, Felicity Jones, Chris
Kipiniak, Louise Lamson, Erik Lochtefeld, Mariann Mayberry, Lisa
Tejero AUTHOR: Mary Zimmerman DIRECTOR: Mary Zimmerman SETS: Daniel
Ostling LIGHTING: TJ Gerckens COSTUMES: Mara Blumenfeld SOUND: Andre
Pluess & Ben Sussman COMPOSER: Willy Schwarz PRODUCTION STAGE
MANAGER:
Anjali Bidani TICKETS $30 - $75 Telecharge 212-239-6200